Jetstar passenger fined $700 for using phone, not wearing seat belt on Gold Coast flight

A JETSTAR passenger fined $700 after refusing to turn off his mobile had an interesting excuse - but you probably shouldn't try it in court yourself.

Jetstar

BAD behaviour on a cut-price airline flight has cost a Jetstar passenger a $700 fine.

Grant Elton King was busted using his Samsung Galaxy 4 to text and make calls during a Sydney to Gold Coast flight last year.

King ignored repeated safety warnings during take off and descent and when a flight ­attendant confronted him, he admitted he hadn't worn a seatbelt for the entire trip.

Commonwealth prosecutor Jessica Williams told the Southport Magistrates Court King suggested staff "should have paid better attention" to passengers.

King was arrested by the Australian Federal Police upon landing at the Gold Coast Airport and yesterday pleaded guilty to two charges of breaching the Civil Aviation Act on June 11, 2013.

His lawyer Michael McMillan said King, a building site manager, had been taking urgent work calls and then couldn't figure out how to turn his new phone off.

Magistrate Ron Kilner laughed off the suggestion, labelling it a "rubbish excuse".

"It's a well-known safety practice to switch off your phone and put on your seatbelt when you board a plane," he said.

"Your behaviour on this occasion was one of defiance that you thought you would do what you liked despite what the officials of the airline asked you to do and to hell with other passengers and the safety of the aircraft."

The maximum penalty for using a mobile phone on a flight is a $1700 fine and a maximum $4750 fine for not wearing a seatbelt.

Mr McMillan asked for ­leniency, explaining King was already on a suspended sentence in New South Wales for stalking and a new conviction could send him back to jail.

The magistrate demurred and fined King $500 for the phone offence and $200 for failing to wear a seatbelt.

Outside court, King said he would "try to remember" to switch off his phone on the flight home to Sydney.